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Continued from page 2

The merry months of Maia

Again, Dear Esther was very much a known quantity by the time it reached its professional release. But what about a relatively unknown quantity?

Maia

Maia was Kickstarted, but not a $4 million Kickstarter - it asked for £100,000 (c. $165,000) and got £140,000 (c. $200,000) at the end of 2012. One year later, Maia - a sharp take on the base-building god-game likes of Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius, in which the player builds and populates a base on a hostile world - reached Steam Early Access. I asked creative lead Simon Roth what the ability to sell his alpha build, in effect, meant for the game:

I'd say it has given the project's finances a rigid backbone for a fresh year of development. Previously, I've been deeply cautious about spending money on non-essentials due to the nature of the Maia's Kickstarter funding. It never quite felt like spending my own cash, and running out would have been a PR disaster. We did have a reasonable income through direct alpha sales, but the Steam release is significant enough to allow us to pull out the stops and for me to focus purely on content and polish, rather than the distractions of tight budgeting.

It's increased our visibility quite a lot. It's far easier to get coverage when giving out Steam keys, as being on the service seems to "legitimize" a game. That in turn feeds back to sales, from Steam or direct from our website.

As a developer I am now far more aware of the things that one would usually become blind to. With thirty thousand players, I get instant feedback on any obvious problems with the game and get data from groups that would otherwise be neglected, such as colour blind users or deaf players.

The one major benefit, that is far harder to provide data for is the psychological one to me and the team. Having done the worst part of any game's development, release day, halfway through development has taken a huge weight off my shoulders and let's me get on with creating the game rather than stressing myself over PR and other distractions. Work can now be managed easier and I can eliminate any periods of potential crunch from our scheduling.

For indie developers, who may be light on costs (since the time cost of their own abilities is often the largest cost - Roth comes from AAA development), the feedback and focus from getting onto Steam - in Maia's case through Greenlight - is as valuable as the immediate bump in sales:

Greenlight really marked a change in the way I presented the game and somewhat helped to focus its development. We went from showing the game to a niche of deeply involved, and quite accepting [Indiegogo and Kickstarter] backers to a more generic audience, who were discovering not just Maia, but the entire concept of god games for the first time. Explaining an experience in terms of other titles and genres can only go so far when some your audience have never played or seen anything other than Minecraft.

Due to this, I've had to focus on the core gameplay and presentation aspects of the game's development more. Putting new UI and better tutorials and information to ensure that newer players are introduced to the game's world and systems in a smoother manner. On a wider scale we've had to constantly find new touchstones to explain the goals of the game and my vision for it. It's difficult and draining, but the constant reappraisal of our work keeps things fresh and creatively challenging.

So, from the incredible sales speed of a full-price FPS like Day Z, to games produced by visual artists, academics and AAA exiles, Steam still has the power to make a game - and certainly to keep a studio team resourced. Although the nature of the market has changed with the introduction of Steam Greenlight, and will change again, the importance of being on Steam - and being seen on Steam - seems unchanged.